Brief encounter | 26 October 2017

Books on the world championship matches used to appear regularly, with some having multiple written accounts. In recent years, though, these have declined, not least because of the decision by Fidé, the World Chess Federation, to keep reducing the length of the matches.

When Labourdonnais and Macdonnell clashed in London in a series of contests during 1834, the total number of games played was 85. This was the first competition which (although it took place over a series of smaller consecutive events) might be regarded as the inaugural chess match to pitch the two acknowledged frontrunners of the day against one another.

The longest world championship match to take place since then was the first meeting between Karpov and Kasparov, in 1984/1985, which extended to 48 games. The norm from 1951 onwards had been 24 games, but this has now dwindled to 12. This is one reason why match books have become less popular, since of those 12, a portion tend to be colourless draws. The saving grace is the rapid play-off over four games which comes into force if the main event ends in a tie.

This week’s extract of play is taken from a new book on the championship between Magnus Carlsen and Sergei Karjakin from New York last year. The initial 12 games concluded with honours even, but the world champion went on to triumph 3-1 in the play-off. What follows was the first crack in Karjakin’s armour in the shoot-out games.

Notes are based on those from Carlsen vs Karjakin World Chess Championship New York 2016 by grandmaster Lev Alburt and national master Jon Crumiller, published by the Chess Information and Research Center, New York. The former world champion Vladimir Kramnik also provides sketches of the key moments of each game.